Automatic car-coupling.



G. H. F. BERGLUND & H. A. H. LIND'ENCRONA.

mas. H. m. u. LINDENCRONA, WIDOW AND HEIRESS or H. A. HZ LINDENCRONA,ncc'o.

AUTOMATIC CAR COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE'IG, 1910.

1, 173,644. Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

4 SHEETSSHEET l- THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH cm, WASHINGTON, D. c

' G. H. F. BERGLUND & H. AJH. LINDENCRONA.

mas. H. M. u. LINDENCRONA, WIDOW AND HEIRESS OF H. A. H. UNDENCRONA,osc'n.

AUTOMATIC CAR COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 16. 1910.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

4. SHEETS-SHEET 2- THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 50., WASHINGTON, D. c. v

G. H. F. BERGLUND & H. A. H. LINDENCRONA.

wmdw AND HEIRESS or H. A. H. LINDENCRONA AUTOMATIC CAR COUPLING.

MRS. H. M. U. LINDENCRONA.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 16. 1910.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH co., WASHINGTON, D. c. I

G. H. F. BERGLUND & H. A. H. LINDENCRONA.

MRS. H. M. u. LINDENCRONA, WIDOW AND HEIRESS or H. A. H. UNDENCRONA,DECD.

AUTOMATIC CAR COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE16, 1910.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

4 SHEETSSHEET 4.

THE COLUMBIA AAAA NOGRAPH Co., WASHINGTON, D. c.

Cat

GUSTAF HENRIK FABIAN BERGLUND, 0F STOCKHOLIVI, SWVEDEN, AND HALDAN A. H.LINDENCRONA, DECEASED, BY MRS. HULDA MARIA ULRIKA LINDENCRONA, WIDOW ANDHEIRESS OF SAID HALDAN A. H. LINDENCRONA, DECEASED.

AUTOMATIC CAR-COUPLING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

1 b all whom it may concern Be it known that GUsrAr HENRIK FABIANBERGLUND, a subject of the King of Sweden, residing at Valhallavagen 83,Stockholm, Sweden, and HALDAN ADoLF HERMAN LIN- DENCRONA, deceased, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Automatic Car- Couplings, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to an automatic car-coupling, which willfulfil all reasonable requirements in a higher degree than thosehitherto known, especially as far as concerns simplicity, reliability,low cost, weight, wear and sensitiveness for exterior unfavorableinfluence (as of snow, ice, dirt, etc), facility of fitting" andhandling, of supervision, control and exchange of parts. Further thesaid coupling permits the retaining of a through draw-bar and thecoupling together without difficulty of cars provided with the same andsuch provided with a screw coupling. If side buffers are used when thecoupling is first introduced on the rolling stock of a railway system,and if it is deemed advisable to exchange the same for a central buffer,this can also be easily accomplished by the use of the presentinvention, it being of course understood that such an alteration couldnot be done before the whole rolling stock has been provided withcouplings according to the present invention. 'When the said alterationis made, a considerable reduction of the distance between the cars ascompared with cars provided with side buffers and screw coupling is alsoobtained.

In the accompanying drawing, the invention is illustrated in differentstages of its application on the cars of a railway system.

Figure 1 shows a side elevation and Fig. 2 a plan view of the inventionas applied to cars provided with side buffers and adapted to be coupledalso to cars provided with screw-couplings. Fig. 3 shows a side viewcorresponding to Fig. 1, illustrating the coupling together of onecar'with the present improved coupling and one car with a screwcoupling. Fig. 4 shows a corresponding side elevation of the ends of twocars, the couplings of which are adapted only for coupling together withcouplings of the same design. Fig. 5 shows a plan view. Fig. 6 an endview and Fig. 7 a partial side view of Fig. 8 shows a plan view, Fig. 9a side view and Fig. 10 a front view of the locking piece. Figs. 11 and12 show respectively a plan view and a side View of the supporting piecefor the coupler head.

Each end of a car according to the present invention is provided with acoupler-head consisting of a hook 1 and a locking piece 6 supported bythe same. The former is rotatable around a vertical axis with respect toa supporting and connecting piece 7 which is supported by the car in amanner more specifically described hereinafter. The hook 1 is ofsufficient height to insure a perfect engagement with the correspondinghook of another car even at the largest difference of height which mayarise as a consequence of different compression of the car springs. Thehook which is shown in detail in Figs. 57 has its front thrust surface32 as well as its engaging surface 33 arranged obliquely with respect tothe pulling direction, the angles of the said surfaces being such as topermit an automatic engagement as well as disengagement of two hooksunder the infiuence of a force acting in the said pullingdirection-provided of course that the hooks are free to rotate. At itsrear end, the hook has a lateral projection 29 the front face of whichis plane in its substance. The said projection at its outer edgeterminates in a portion 2 with a forked profile, embracing alongitudinal vertical groove 4 and having at its upper end a recess 5.This portion 2 is destined to serve as a bearing for the locking piece 6(see also Figs. 8-10), the said piece having two parallel longitudinalportions one of which is cylindrical (see the hatched surfaces in Fig.10 which represent crosssections of the portions) and adapted to beguided in the vertical groove 4 of the hook. The other longitudinalportion of the locking piece is adapted to move along the cylindricallyshaped outside of the porti n 2, while the cross-piece connecting thetwo longitudinal portions of the locking piece is destined to lie in therecess 5. The front face of the latter recess is perpendicular while therear one 31 ascends helically so that the lockingpiece when rotated inrearward direction will also be lifted.

The coupling hock, on the side adapted to be directed outward andrearward, is provided with strengthening ribs and lugs 3 the couplerhook,

V of the latter,

arising from these. The upper one of the said lugs which are verticallyabove each other has a projection 43 on itslower side. The saidprojection has sloping side faces and is adapted to lie betweencorresponding projections 8 on the upper side of the piece serving tosupport the hook. The latter is connected to the piece 7 by means of avertical bolt 28 around which it can be rotated. In its normal positionthe projection 43 lies between the projections 8 in the aforesaidmanner, but when the hook is swung to the side from said position, it isalso lifted by the projections 43 and 8 engaging each other. As long asthe sloping faces of the said projections bear against each other, thehook thus always tends to return to its normal position under theinfluence of gravity.

The dimensions of the of the locking pieces are such that when theformer are in engagement and the latter occupy their normal positions inthe bottom of the recesses 5, the locking pieces prevent any appreciablerotation of the hooks and thus keep them in a perfectly safe engagement.It is also quite impossible for the hooks to cause any displacement ofthe locking pieces, because any pull in the hooks will tend to rotatethe locking pieces for- Ward, in which direction they are checked by thevertical front face of the recesses On the other hand, as soon as onlyone of the locking pieces is rotated in a rearward direction (untilchecked by the plane surface of the projection 29) and retained in thisposition, the hooks will be free from each other so as to be disengaged.The mechanism for effectingthe said rearward rotationof the lockingpiece comprises a chain 26 connecting the lower end of the swingingportion of said locking piece to a lever arm 24 situated beneath thecar. The said. lever arm is pivoted on a vertical bolt 48 and providedwith a downwardly projecting pin 25. In the path when the lever is swungaround the bolt 48, ismovable a blade 22 on a shaft 19 transverselymounted on bearings beneath the car. This shaft can be rotatedby meansoflever arms 30 at both ends, preferably consisting of bent partsof'coupling hooks and the shaft itself and provided with counter poises 23at theirends. The lever arms 30, the blade 22 and the pin 25 are sopositioned with respect to each other, that when the arms 30 are turnedabout three quarters of a revolution from their normal, hanging-clownposition, the blade 22 will move the arm 24 so as to tighten the chain26 and rotate the locking piece 6 backward. This motion of the lockingpiece being permitted only until it is checked by the projection 29, thearm 24 will also be checked in such a position as to prevent furthermovement of the blade 22' and the shaft 19. As the shaft has a tensionto perform such further movement under the influence of thecounterpoises 23, said counterpoises now occupying the position shown indash and dotted lines'in Fig. 1, all the operating parts will remain inthe position now described until the checking of the locking piececeases. Thus, when it is desired to disconnect two cars which arecoupled together, it is only necessary to turn one of the levers 30 ofany of the cars about three quarters of a revolution, and then the carmay be left for any time, the coupling being still disconnected. Whenthe cars thus disconnected are drawn apart, both the hooks must be swungthrough a small angle in the clock-wise direction, in order to get freefrom one another, as can be seen from Fig. 2. This movement only willcause a slight pull in the chains 26, that one of said chains which istightened before thus moving the parts 24, 25, 22 etc, somewhat backagain and lifting the counterpoises 23 a little. As soon, however, asthe hook 1 the chain of which is tightened has become free from theother hook, it will yield to the tension of the chain and move in theopposite direction until the blade 22 has got free from the pin 25.Then, all the parts will return to their original positions by gravity,viz. the counterpoises will fall down to the position shown in fulllines in F 1, the locking piece 6 will slide on the face 31 and the hookwill slide on the face 8 until restored to their.

normal position. Thus. the original conditlons of the coupling are allquite automat1 cally restored as soon as the cars are drawn apart. When,on the contrary, two cars are to be coupled together, it is notnecessary to perform any manual operations at all. The hooks of the twocars, by the engagement of their front thrustsurfaces, will swing eachother to the side sutlicicntly to permit the engaging surfaces 32 topass by each other. Further, the hooks will automatically push away thelocking pieces which then are moved up along the slopin surfaces 31 andwill return automatically as soon asfthe hooks have come into properengagement.

If a tension is prevailing in the train or in a set of cars, this ofcourse causes a pres sure between the coupling member and thus also africtional resistance against a move ment of the same. In ordinarycar-couplings, such a tension thus prevents any handling of thecoupling, whence the cars must be pushed together before the couplingparts can be handled in any way. In the present case, this is notnecessary vonaccount of the loose connectionb v means of the chain26between the coupler head proper and the operating mechanism and onaccount of the construction of the latter. The said features make itpossible to perform the total manual operation which is 'necessary forthe uncouplingviz. to rotate the levers 30notwithstanding any tension inthe train and frictional contact between the coupling members. Foraccomplishing the final disconnection, it is only necessary to pushtogether the train for a moment immediately before its pulling apart,said pushing movement acting to release the locking pieces which thenunder the influence of the tension in the chain will effect theuncoupling.

During shunting operations it is often desirable to put the coupling outof function. This is accomplished by means of the following arrangement.Each of the operating shafts 19 is supported in such way as to besomewhat reciprocatable in the longitudinal direction. This movement islimited by two flanges secured to the said shaft outside the bearings 35of the same. One of the flanges is circular but the other flange 20 hasthe shape of a circular segment only and the bearing 35-adjacent to thesame has a pro jection 36 provided with. a notch 21 into which theflange 20 may be engaged by a longitudinal movement of the shaft whenthe said shaft occupies the angular position shown in dash and dottedlines in Fig.1.

As this position corresponds to the retired position of the lockingpiece, this latter may be locked in its retired position by pushing theshaft 19 longitudinally so far as to bring the segmental flange 20 intoengagement with the notch 21. The blade 22 is of sufficient width topermit such movement without losing its engagement with the pin 25. Aswill be seen from the foregoing description, the retiring of one of thelocking pieces 6 is sufficient to permit the hooks to move freely outofand of course also into-engagement with each other. Thus the carsduring shunting operations may be pushed against each other withoutbeing coupled together.

lVhen the automatic coupling hereabove described is first introduced ona railway system, it is generally not practicable to provide all thecars of the system with the new coupling at once, and cars having thesaid new coupling must therefore be so arranged that they can be readilycoupled together with such having a coupling of the type used before.Assuming that this last-mentioned type is a screw coupling, anarrangement of the improved coupling which is found suitable for thepurpose is shown in the drawing, Figs. 1 and '2, and its manner ofoperation particularly in Fig. 3.

The afore-mentioned piece 7 (shown in detail in Figs. 11 and 12) servingto support the coupler head proper is not made integrally with thecontinuous draw-bar and not even permanently secured to the same butconnected to a piece 10 forming part of the draw-bar and projectingthrough the buffer beam by means of two vertical bolts 16, 17 runningthrough the piece 7 and the forked piece 10. One of these bolts 16,which carries an emergency coupling link 27, may be permanently held inplace by means of a cotter or taper pin, but the other bolt 17 ispreferably held in place only by its own weight. Thus, when the car isto be coupled to a car provided with screw coupling (Fig. 3), the bolt17 is lifted out which operation allows the piece 7 to be swung to theside around the bolt 16. Then the connecting link 37 of thescrew-coupling of the other car is introduced into the forked piece10--a recess 9 in the piece 7 permitting such introductionwhereupon thebolt 16 is again inserted and keeps the link 87 in place. Finally, the,emergency link 27 is hooked into the emergency hook of the other car.lVhen, on the other hand, all the cars of a railway system have been provided with the present improved coupling, it may be desirable to removethe side buffers, if such have been used before, and to use the couplingitself as a central buffer. This is made possible in the present case bythe following arrangement. The forked piece 10 projecting through thebuffer beam is cylindrical in its rear portion and also provided with acylindrical bore which embraces the cylindrical end portion of the drawbar 11. These two parts are connected together by means of a wedge 13,though the connection is not rigid, but permitting the displacement ofthe whole coupling backward (toward the center of the car) from itsnormal position. This is accomplished by making the slot in the draw-barfor the wedge broader than the wedge itself which latter is rigidlysecured in the sleeve portion of the piece 10. For normally holding thepiece 10-and thereby the coupler headin its outmost position, a helicalspring 14 is interposed between a flange on the draw-bar 11 and a Washer39 resting against'the rear end of the piece 10. The said spring 1% isof comparatively tiny dimensions and is not destined to serve as a realbuffer spring, but only to permit the coupler-head to follow themovements of the side buffers when the strong springs of the latter arecompressed. In order, however, to facilitate a quick and ready change tothe final state, when the coupler-head has to serve as a buffer alone,it is initially pro vided with a strong buffer spring 15, but the saidspring as long as the side buffers remain in place, rests in anuncompressed state between the aforesaid washer 39 and another washer4:0 resting against a shoulder 41 on the piece 10 so as to perform noaction. The shoulder 41 is preferably formed between the cylindricalrear portion and the square front portion of the piece 10. When it isdesired to remove the side buffers and to cause the coupler head to actas a central buffer, the link 27 suspended from the bolt 16 is firstremoved and the bolt itself pulled out (it may be exchanged for anotherbolt if desired) in order to make it possible to move the wholecoupler-head inward and thus shorten the distance between the cars.Simultaneously, the chain. 26 is shortened to a corresponding degree.The wedge 13 is loosened, and then the whole coupler-head is movedtoward the center of the car until the rear or inner end of the spring15 will come to rest against the central portion of a bow 18 secured tothe corners of the car frame. (The washer 39 has been previously removedby pulling out the couplerhead so far that the said Washer will get freefrom the draw-bar l1. The spring 14 now will lie loosely inside thesleeved portion of the piece 10 and will not have to do any moreservice). IV hen the coupler-head is in this position, the front end ofthe wedge-slot in the draw-bar will register with another slot 4 in thepiece 10 in which the wedge 13 is now inserted. Now, the spring 15 willact as a buffer spring, being compressed between the flange 40 and thebow 18 when two cars are pushed against each other.

Vhen all the cars of a railway system have been provided with thepresent improved coupling and the just described alterations have beenperformed, it is of course not necessary, when manufacturing new carsfor the same system, to manufacture these cars in quite the same way asthose above described which have been altered from the earlier period.The difference between a car of the former and one of the latter kindcan be seen from Fig. 4 where the right hand side shows a car which hasbeen altered from the transitory period while the left hand side shows acar especially manufactured for the final period. On this latter car,the member connecting the coupler-head with the draw-bar l1 is in onesingle piece 7 instead of in two and of course has only one slot for thewedge 13. Further, the bow 18 serving as a seat for the buffer springhas a more flattened shape which is a consequence of the formerarrangement.

What is claimed is 1. In an automatic car-coupling, the combination of asupporting member provided with cam surfaces, a coupling hook rotatablearound a vertical axis with respect to the car frame and provided withcam surfaces coacting with the cam surfaces on said supporting member tolift the hook when rotated from its normal position, a locking piececarried by said coupling hook and rotatable around a vertical axis withrespect thereto, said hook having surfaces to lift said locking piecewhen rotated in a certain direction, and means for rotating the saidlocking piece, the coupling hook being provided with oblique surfacesfor engaging corresponding surfaces of'another coupling hook and withother surfaces to be, engaged by the locking piece so as to permit thedisengaging of two coupling hooks by rotating only one of the lockingpieces.

2. In an automatic car-coupling, the combination of a supporting memberprovided with cam surfaces, a coupling hook rotatable around a verticalaxis with respect to the car frame and provided with cam surfacescoacting with the cam surfaces on said supporting member to lift thehook when rotated from its normal position, a locking piece carried bysaid coupling hook and rotatable around a vertical axis with respectthereto, said hook having surfaces to lift said locking piece whenrotated in a certain direction, and means for rotating said lockingpiece, said coupling hook having an abutting surface serving to checkthe relative movement of the said lockingpiece with respect thereto soas to move both these parts together, after the coupling hook has beendisengaged.

3. In an automatic car-coupling, the combination of a supporting memberprovided with cam surfaces, a coupling hook rotatable around a verticalaxis with respect to the car frame and provided with cam surfacescoacting with the cam surfaces on said supporting member to lift thehook when rotated from its normal position, -a locking piece carried bysaid coupling hook and rotatable around a vertical axis with respectthereto, said hook having surfaces to lift said locking piece whenrotated in a certain direction, lever mechanism carried by the car,means for rotating said locking-piece comprising a flexible memberconnecting said piece to said lever mechanism, means 7 for rotating saidlever mechanism less than one revolution and thereby tightening saidflexible member and means, operated by gravity, for completing therevolution when the coupling yields to the tension of said flexiblemember.

In testimony whereof I, GUs'rAr HENRIK FABIAN BERGLUND, and I, IIULDAMARIA ULRIKA LINDENCRONA, widow after and heiress of the said HALDANADoLF HERMAN LINDENCRONA, have signed our names to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GUSTAF HENRIK FABIAN BERGLUND. HULDA MARIA ULRIKA LINDENCRONA, ME FLIORT0F ORNKS.

Vitnesses Bmcnn NORDF'ELDT, GRETA PRIEU.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

